College World Series history

Welcome to the College World Series historical database, brought to you by Omaha.com and the Omaha World-Herald. This page is our growing home for historical information about past NCAA baseball championships, which have been played in Omaha since 1950.

You can read historical information for each year of the CWS, dating to 1947. We also created a history page for every school that has played in the CWS. Click a banner on the main page or select a team or year from these dropdown menus.

Participating teams

It's nice to sweep

Series highlights

Southern California coach Rod Dedeaux had won College World Series championships with sweeps and also after losing in the first round.

Which way did he prefer?

"Well, basically," he said, "we just tried to play one game at a time in the years we lost in the first round.

"But it's nice to be out front," he said, after the Trojans dispatched Arizona State 10-3 to win their 11th national championship.

Bill Bordley, a 19-year-old left-hander, pitched the Trojans to their title game victory. The Sun Devils lost twice to USC in the CWS — and with those setbacks they relinquished the championship they captured in 1977.

The Trojans marched undefeated through the CWS to championships in 1961, 1968, 1973, and 1978. They won titles after losing first-round CWS games in 1958, 1963, and 1970.

The other Trojan title years were 1948, 1971, 1972, and 1974.

It was a new generation of Trojans that performed in 1978. None of the 1978 Trojans had ever played before in the College World Series.

Most Outstanding Player

Rod Boxberger, Southern California

Boxberger was selected for his 5-2, 10-inning victory over Arizona State.